Sources and Further Reading

This page gathers the sources behind the three parts of Roots, Branches, and Light. Each part links its sources where they are used and ends with a short list of works cited; here they are all in one place, grouped by kind, with a link and a line on what each one supports.

A word on how the evidence is weighed. Scripture anchors the reading. Later commentators, ancient and medieval, are evidence of their own interpretations, not proof of what earlier biblical writers intended. Dictionaries, studies and museum records each have their own role. And the modern teaching chart at the center of the series shows how Hebrew is taught today; it cannot date ancient grammar.

Scripture

  • The King James Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants and the Joseph Smith Translation, quoted from the Church’s editions at churchofjesuschrist.org. Every scripture reference in the series links to its verse.
  • Joseph Smith Translation, John 1. Part 3: the Word tied to the gospel, to life and light, and to the Son (verses 4, 14 and 16).
  • The Hebrew and Aramaic text, through Bible Hub’s interlinear and text analysis for Genesis 1:1, Isaiah 11:1, Isaiah 29:13, Daniel 4:15 and Zechariah 2:2, and through Sefaria for Proverbs 4:24. Parts 2 and 3: the small words and word forms the English does not show.

Latter-day Saint Resources

The Menorah, the Tree and the Menorah Psalm

  • Cornelis Houtman, “Menorah — Lampstand,” Semantics of Ancient Hebrew Database, 2013, updated 2025, sections 6.1–6.3. Part 1: the lampstand’s botanical form, and why scholars still disagree about how much it owes to sacred-tree imagery.
  • Philo of Alexandria, Who Is the Heir of Divine Things? sections 215–220 (C. D. Yonge translation). Part 3: a first-century Jewish reading of the lampstand as a picture of how God orders the world.
  • Gregory E. Sterling, “Philo of Alexandria,” Oxford Bibliographies in Classics, 2015. Part 3, notes: Philo’s dates.
  • Babylonian Talmud, Bava Batra 25b:8. Part 3: the rabbinic link between the menorah and wisdom.
  • Bahya ben Asher, commentary on Exodus 25:31, paragraph 4. Part 3: the lampstand’s 22 cups matched to the 22 letters.
  • Dunash ibn Tamim, commentary on Sefer Yetsirah, chapter 1, translated by Jeffrey G. Amshalem, Posen Library (selections). Part 3: letters, creation and the Abrahamic tradition in a tenth-century commentary.
  • A. Peter Hayman, Sefer Yeṣira: Edition, Translation and Text-Critical Commentary (Mohr Siebeck, 2004), introduction, pp. 1–2. Part 3: the modern edition’s view of how commentary became mixed into the text.
  • Abudarham, Weekday Prayers, Post Amidah 43. Part 3: Psalm 67 already called the Menorah Psalm, its seven verses matched to seven branches.
  • Sarit Shalev-Eyni, “Gebetbuch, jüdisch” (Jewish Prayerbook), RDK Labor, 2014, section II.A.2. Part 3: the dated 1397 Pisa prayer book with Psalm 67 written as a lampstand.
  • David Arnow, “Jacob’s Hope for Salvation: The Extraordinary Career of Genesis 49:18,” Zeramim IV/3 (2020), pp. 9–10. Part 3: confirms the 1397 example.
  • Eep Talstra and Carl J. Bosma, “Psalm 67: Blessing, Harvest and History: A Proposal for Exegetical Methodology,” Calvin Theological Journal 36 (2001): 290–313. Part 3: the psalm’s mirrored structure.
  • National Library of Russia, First Leningrad Pentateuch, Evr. II B 17 (copied 929). Part 3: the menorah among the tabernacle furnishings in a tenth-century Hebrew manuscript.
  • Later Jewish interpretation of the letter nun: Aaron L. Raskin, “Nun,” Chabad.org. Part 1: nun as a symbol of continuing life.

Hebrew Roots, Patterns and Words

  • David Kimhi (Radak), Sefer HaShorashim: the introduction and the entries גזע (stump) and שרש (root), on Sefaria. Part 2: tree vocabulary and verb-pattern analysis in the same medieval work.
  • William Chomsky, David Kimhi’s Hebrew Grammar (Mikhlol), systematically presented and critically annotated. Part 2: the medieval order of the verb patterns.
  • The Ben-Yehuda dictionary, entry binyan. Part 2: binyan as “building”, and Kimhi’s columns of verb forms.
  • The Academy of the Hebrew Language, terminology records for root, stem and noun pattern, and its rules for verbs by root type. Part 2: the meaning of each grammatical term.
  • Brown–Driver–Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, entries learn, measure and לָמַד, L–M–D. Part 2: learn, teach and be taught, and the separate root for measuring.
  • Ernest Klein, A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the Hebrew Language, entry נוּן, on Sefaria. Part 1: the letter name nun and words for sprouting and offspring.
  • The Blue Letter Bible lexicon (Strong’s numbers with Gesenius), entries for shoresh, binyan, gezaʿ, bayit, mishkal, et, katav, and the Greek logos, pneuma, manthanō and mathētēs. All three parts: the words behind the popups.
  • Mishnah Peah 1:1 and Pirkei Avot 1:1. Part 2: talmud as study and talmidim as disciples.
  • "Grammar, Hebrew," Jewish Encyclopedia. Part 2: the history of Hebrew grammar.
  • National Library of Israel, Leningrad Codex record. Part 2: the oldest complete dated Hebrew Bible (1008–09).
  • Paul Joüon, Grammaire de l’hébreu biblique (2nd ed., 1947), the page on pronunciation, on Wikisource. Part 2: how biblical Hebrew was pronounced.
  • Pantelidis, “The Greek Alphabet” (2014), and the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy’s Greek lexicon, manthanō. Part 2: how the Greeks adapted the alphabet, and why the learn/measure comparison stays a question.
  • "Hebrew for the Rest of Us," the Hebrew appendix to William D. Mounce, Greek for the Rest of Us. Part 1: a plain introduction to Hebrew verb forms.

The Menorah Verb Chart: Where It Appears

These show the chart in use as a teaching tool. None of them shows where its design began.

  • Serge Frydman, Conjuguer sans peine en hébreu (Lycée ORT Villiers-le-Bel, October 2006). Parts 1 and 3: the earliest dated example we have located.
  • Israeli Ministry of Education, “Menorat HaBinyanim” (undated adult-education handout). Part 1.
  • Michael Rose and Ezri Uval, A Step by Step Guide to Modern Hebrew (2006; editor Yechiel Kara). Part 1.
  • Lon T. Cherryholmes, The Seven Benyamin for Hebrew Verbs, in the Menorah Form (Yesodey Yeshiva, © 2011 Zion CS), a teaching sheet (copy; second copy). Parts 1 and 3.
  • Mazal Cohen-Weidenfeld, Poalei Binyan: A Book for Learning the Verb, Part A: The Binyanim (Jerusalem: Rechelim, first edition 2000). Part 3: a verb course that keeps the root tree and the pattern table side by side without combining them.
  • Ulpan-Or, Intermediate-Low Unit 1, pages 39–41 (page 39). Part 3: a modern course that introduces “The Verb Menorah” through Psalm 67.
  • Yael Laure and Sharon Armon-Lotem, “Linear and Nonlinear Processing of Hebrew Templatic Words: The Role of Metalinguistic Awareness,” Applied Psycholinguistics 45 (2024): 666–694, Appendix A. Part 3: a “Binyanim Menora” described as a teaching diagram.

Early Christian Sources

  • Eusebius, Church History 3.23.1–4. Part 3, notes: John in Ephesus.
  • United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, introductions to John and Revelation. Part 3, notes: the usual dates for John’s writings.

Images

  • Plaque in the form of a tree, Assyrian, ninth–eighth century BCE, Nimrud. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund, 1958, 58.31.22 (object record). Public domain.
  • Menorah, Psalm 67, Kiddush levana, William L. Gross Collection, Ms. 174 (image and credit record). Public domain.

Further Reading

A few works from the research behind the series that it does not link directly: